Friday, May 25, 2012

Friday missive

I've switched from my email Friday missive to my blog.  I know there are already plenty of people who read the blog--this will include a different audience, so the focus of the blog may shift a bit.  What does it matter?  It is what it is.

Had a good weekend last weekend, very nice time.  Beautiful weather, sunny and 70's, a bit warmer on Sunday.  I got a few things done around the house on Sat., Sunday I spent time with Lin and her son Jay.  We went to Lamoy's because they were having a sale, so I felt obligated to buy more plants.  I haven't spent as much money as in some years, though I have to declare myself DONE with buying plants.  Got some nice geraniums at Campbell's on Saturday (with Lin).  Funny place.  I bought nice, big geraniums for my father and brother, got the elders smaller ones, but everyone will get something for sure.  Maybe this weekend I'll get into town to do the planting.  It sure would be a nice change to do it before the black flies come out.

Monday I went to the dermatologist in Burlington, which was a nice trip.  Not the part about being at the doctor's, but the ferry ride was pretty--sparkling water.  Not as rough as Silver Lake was that day.  I went to Barnes & Noble--who can resist a bookstore?  Bought some used books and a new jigsaw puzzle for Annie.  The last one I got her is a cruel one, so this one is easier and prettier.  I'll see them this weekend, they're coming tonight.

Sunday Ravi mowed my lawn & cut up the tree that was blocking the bottom of the driveway.  He's a good worker.  Fred knows I pay him too much, but he's a friend and hard-working college student.

Fred and I had dinner at Big Daddy's one night (liver for him).  We got there very early so got to watch all the arrivals.  The diner is doing quite well and seems to have established itself as the neighborhood eatery.  Good news.  It's not a great place but if you know what to expect you'll be pleased.  We had a good time reviewing the other diners.  Don't wear white pants. 

Yesterday I went to the annual meeting of our regional library system, held at the Mirror Lake Inn.  It was very nice and I had a great time visiting with friends I've known for many years.  Two good speakers and a nice lunch.  I ate outside, which was wonderful because it was sunny, cool and just beautiful.  Clouded over later in the day, but never did rain.

I slept in the boat house last night--first time this year.  Treasure's introduction to summer routines.  She did better than I expected, slept through the night nicely.  She got wet, I don't know just how--I assume she fell in because she doesn't know she's supposed to be obsessed with water.  Tess swam, of course, but Chances didn't.  Chances swam at Linda's last weekend, which was really nice.  Swimming is good exercise for her and it's good to know she feels strong enough to swim.

Pretty sunrise, which I photographed, but the picture is too blurry to post.  I knew I should have taken more than one shot, but it was 5:00 and I was bleary-eyed.

I'm off for 5 days after today.  It's my annual pretend to clean the house time.  I used to divide the house into zones, trying to spend one day on each zone.  That stopped working about the 2nd year, so now I just make myself a long list of possible projects.  Nothing too challenging this year, but I would like to clear the master bedroom enough to walk through it, packing up old clothes and organizing the mess.  I also need to clear the upstairs hallway, in case Anna spends time at the house.  Or anyone else does.  I already painted my kitchen cupboards (white) which don't look very good right now, but at least I covered up the primer.  I have lots of planting to do (yes, Fred, in the English garden) and I hope to make a good dump run.  Today I'll drop off a huge garbage bag of bottles & cans for the Humane Society--I cleared the pantry floor last night so I can once again walk into the pantry.  Most impressive.

Dogs are fine.  Went to the vet on Monday night--they all have mange, or so we're guessing.  They each get 3 shots, 2 weeks apart.  So far not much scratching anymore.  Rats, I just realized I forgot to give Chances her prednisone.  Well, she's not scratching so maybe the cure has cured the itch.

Work is fine.  I'm still cleaning up the records from the bookmobile, which is a big project but will be good to have done.  I weed both fiction and non-fiction sporadically.  Next Thursday I go to Keene Valley to help her weed her adult non-fiction--again.  I'm lining up a trip to Lake Placid to help her weed her adult fiction.  And soon I go to Port Henry to evaluate her special collections.  I have a lot of traveling to do after that, need to get to all the libraries this year.

Cannot wait for the weekend!  I'll be staying at the boat house, though spending days at home.

Green mountainside

Green mountainside by woodsrun
Green mountainside, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

View of Douglas from the boat house. Notice the green green green.

Lady's slipper near boat house

I didn't get a very good picture, it was windy and the dogs wanted to see up close what I was taking a picture of, but here's a lady's slipper. Very pretty. We used to have tons of them next to the boat house but in recent years there haven't been too many, so it's nice to see some.

008

008 by woodsrun
008, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

This is what the mountain looked like last evening from the boat house. Notice the bright green. How very, very pretty.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Nice spring day

It's a pretty day, nice and sunny.  Cool this morning but warming up.  Warm enough to put my plantlets out in the sun.  I have only cosmos and zinnias, and they're not growing very fast.  Cukes are just barely germinating--I need to plant my own because I grow Picklebush, which are bushy rather than viney, so do well in containers.  I'm not growing tomatoes this year--it's just too frustrating.  They start getting rip right around the time the dogs discover their location and eat them all.  They don't eat cukes on the vine, though--too prickly.

Had a good weekend, very nice time.  Saturday was a banner day, perfect weather, sunny and clear.  Lin and I met in Saranac and drove to the Subaru place near Lyon Mountain.  Frank's.  He didn't have a Subaru for Anna, but he's expecting a good Camry in trade this week.  It was supposed to come in on Tuesday but hasn't arrived yet.  I'm really hoping this one works out, it sounds like a really good vehicle.  But if not, then not.  There are cars available for $5000, you just have to be careful which one you get.

After car shopping we went to Lamoy's for plants.  I bought some flowers, mostly petunias because they didn't have much else that I wanted.  Though they have 9 greenhouses full of plants.  You'd think I could find something, wouldn't you?  I went back this week for more stuff, and to get some herbs for Linda, and bought more petunias.  No one seems to have white flowers, which is what I'm in need of.  I went to another place and they had cheaper geraniums but no white flowers.  Except for petunias.  And I have plenty of those.  I'll stop at another place tonight on my way home, maybe they'll have cheaper geraniums for the cemetery.

It was a beautiful trip to Frank's, such a clear day the view of Vermont & the High Peaks was fantastic.  Chazy Lake was blue and looked very cold.  Which it is.

Saturday night I had dinner with Annie, who came for the weekend sans Rush.  We had a nice visit.  She came by Sunday morning to cut up a tree but the saw wouldn't start.  So she borrowed my mower instead & got her lawn cut.  Mine was cut on Saturday by Ravi, my friend's son who's been mowing for me for a few years.  This is the last year for him, we think, because he graduates from college next year and hopes to have a real job.  He likes my dogs and always lets them out, but apparently Treasure didn't cotton to him--he reported that she was nervous around him.  She's pretty protective of her home.

Sunday my cousin Elsa stopped by--she & her son were here for the weekend to open their camp (which is next door to the family camp).  I had dinner with them Sun. night, a very nice time in main camp (no power at their camp).  They're both fine.  Ben just graduated from college (engineering--which is something I will never understand.  Engineering, not Ben I mean) and has a good job in Mass., an apartment near the ocean so he's really happy.

I talked to my mother on Sunday--Saturday's call was short because she was getting ready for their violet dinner.  Every year they have a dinner party when the violets are in bloom.  They've both been collecting dishes with violets on them for years now, and Mark has a tablecloth with violets on it, so they do it up big.  They gave up on trying to serve purple food a long time ago.  Anyway, Liza reported that the dinner was a big success and all was beautiful, though there weren't many violets this year.

My daffodils were peak over the weekend, are now starting to look a bit skanky.  I had a lot of what I had, though fewer varieties than I usually have.  I'll get more to plant in the fall.  I cut down tons of blackberry bushes, which have taken over too many parts of my yard and gardens.  I'll spray them when new leaves appear--the hell with the planet, I want my yard back.  What an attitude!

Dogs are fine.  Chances is quite deaf but seems cheerful.  Treasure has been eating a lot of sunflower seed--there's something, like maybe a raccoon which keeps opening up my seed bin and tipping it over.  Treasure walks right into the bin and chomps away.  Tess is more ladylike but eats her share.  I'll have to stop feeding the birds.  I don't usually feed them in the summer anyway, I was just doing it so I could see pretty yellow goldfinches.  Which I have been seeing.

Kitty is fine, has recovered from whatever ailed her.  She was lethargic and wasn't eating, would only lie down in a strange spot in the master bedroom.  Now she's just fine, eating like a champ and going outside.  She brought in a half-dead mouse one night, which Tess grabbed and ate.  Then she brought in a dead mouse, which Treasure grabbed and carried around, with the tail hanging out of the front of her mouth.  Which was cute but disgusting.  Treasure eats like a real champ, is a hogger pig and would eat herself to death if she ever had a chance.

Work is fine.  I'm cleaning up the data base big time, getting rid of records for things we no longer have.  There were 1500 bookmobile books, most of which are long gone, so I'm working on them.

Sent a check to Illinois for my June trip--there will be 17 of us women gathering in Lake Geneva for a long weekend.  I'm looking forward to it, this is always a great time with nice people.  We're supposed to come up with something notable about ourselves and what's been happening to us for the last 40 years.  I'm having a real problem with that--turns out I've done nothing very remarkable, nor has my life been filled with exciting experiences.  hmmmm.

Lupines

Lupines by woodsrun
Lupines, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Pretty flowers at the nursery.

008

008 by woodsrun
008, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Lin's sheep.

Frank

Frank by woodsrun
Frank, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Lin's dog, who doesn't know how to pose for portraits. He's absolutely beautiful and has the best eyeliner I've ever seen.

Trillium

Trillium by woodsrun
Trillium, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Purple trillium. There's also some painted trillium in bloom in the woods, but not as much as there used to be.

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029 by woodsrun
029, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

It's greening up in the bog.

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031 by woodsrun
031, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Blurry fiddleheads. They're getting bigger every day.

Bog dog

Bog dog by woodsrun
Bog dog, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Tess flying through the bog. She does love her bog.

Chainsaw Annie

Chainsaw Annie by woodsrun
Chainsaw Annie, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Annie brought her chainsaw to my house to cut up the tree that's down across the bottom of the driveway. We tried and tried but couldn't get the saw started. Very frustrating.

Geraniums in the greenhouse

Geraniums in the greenhouse by woodsrun
Geraniums in the greenhouse, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Went to Lamoy's with Lin but didn't buy any of these geraniums--they're too expensive there. I have to buy more than a dozen or so, for the cemetery. This year I should plant portulaca on my fatther's grave. He always planted it at the bases of trees at our first house in Rockford.

Twins by woodsrun
Twins, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Rufus in the foreground. He's destined for greatness because he's so pretty.

That's Rufus, the ram lamb. He is beautiful.

Lin and her sheep

Lin and her sheep by woodsrun
Lin and her sheep, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Run sheepies, run. This is what they do when Lin tells them she's got treats--

Friday, May 11, 2012

Sunny Friday

And it's a beautiful day in the Adirondacks.  I spent the morning in Essex with other staff members, barcoding their fiction collections.  We zipped right through it, only took half the day so now I'm back at work.  I'd hoped to go home from Essex, but there is stuff I need to attend to here in Pbg.  Like catching up with my blog.

It's been a good week.  Had a nice weekend, kept to myself mostly and enjoyed walking with the tribe.  Kitty walked the bog with us on Sunday, something she sometimes does.  Chances is doing very well, now goes up the deck stairs unaided.  This morning I walked to camp with the dogs, to open the gate for cousins who are coming/are here to put in the docks.  YIPPEE!!  Having the docks in is great because it means I can kayak more easily.  As if I actually DID that.  Well, this year I hope to.  Also it's great to have docks in because Sunday of Memorial Day weekend is Book Group Perch Fishing Derby, and oh how much easier it will be to get in boats if there's a dock or two. 

I spent most of the weekend reading in the sun, which is truly one of my favorite things to do.  I have an appointment soon with a dermatologist to have a full body check for melanoma done.  Imagine how tacky it will be to show up there with tan lines.  I can't help it, I just enjoy the sun.  I love sitting on my deck with the dogs & cat hanging around, and I love sitting on the dock on a calm sunny day.  Or even if there's a little wind.  But mostly when it's calm.  Although then you can hear conversations from all over the lake.

Went to Keene Valley on Weds., had a great time there weeding the non-fiction.  The director and I are good friends and enjoy each other's company a lot.  Only worked there until noon, then came to work.

I had lunch with my good friend Barb yesterday.  Or pretended to have lunch.  There's a good restaurant across from the library, but they're notorious for the incredibly poor service.  You always have to wait a long time for your food, no matter what else is going on in the place.  Yesterday they had a party of 6 that just stopped them cold, so we waited 50 minutes for our food before asking for take out.  So Barb & I had a nice visit but left hungry.  I ate my salad later in the afternoon.  And maybe we won't go back there for a long time.

The weather's been cold and warm, sunny and rainy.  This morning it was 35 at home, and the house was 55.  I had a fire the other night, well, 2 nights, I finally realized I don't need to be chilled, I have plenty of firewood and it only takes a minute to start a fire. 

I think I have a raccoon visiting the house.  I keep the birdseed in a garbage can with the lid on tight, and something keeps prying the lid off & tipping the can over.  The other day I saw something waddling into the woods--I thought it was a big bird, but in hindsight it was probably a nasty raccoon.  I hate raccoons, although they are fascinating animals.  We had chickens in the late 80s and raccoons killed nearly all of them.  I loved our chickens, and would love to have them again but it's too complicated.  Who would take care of them when I went away?  How would I ever manage to keep the coop raccoon and fox free?

Anyway, it's spring in Hawkeye.  Leaves on trees everywhere else, but we just have little nubbins of green.  That's all right, it's only early May.  As soon as we have leaves we have black flies, so I'm in no great hurry.  Besides, it's sooooo quiet in the woods before the leaves come out.

Annie is coming this weekend, so I'll spend time with her.  Hope she brings her chainsaw, I have a tree down across the driveway that needs attention.  Ravi is coming tomorrow to mow the lawn.  I promised to have the mower ready to run.  Well, I brought it up from the shed, which is the first step.  Next I have to gas it up & pull the cord a bunch of times.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to Lyon Mtn to check out some used Subarus with Lin.  I'm looking for a car for Anna.  I have some options already, which is comforting, but haven't found the perfect vehicle yet.  There's a great pick-up in the paper today but I don't think she wants a truck.  I do.

007

007 by woodsrun
007, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Spring at 58OHR

017

017 by woodsrun
017, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Here's what 3/4 of the group looks like. Mangy bunch, no?

020

020 by woodsrun
020, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Cat in bog

Fiddleheads knocking heads

Fiddleheads knocking heads by woodsrun
Fiddleheads knocking heads, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Ferns are just starting to come up. This was taken on Sunday, they're probably uncurled by now. We've had some warm sunny days.

She looks cross but she always purrs.

She's not doing well right now and I don't know what's wrong with her. She won't eat and just sleeps all the time. If cats got depressed I'd be suspicious of that, but I think there's something wrong with her. She still purrs, though.

LEAVES!!! We have leaves! On poplars, anyway.

This is what it looks like if you stand under a poplar tree and look up.

004

004 by woodsrun
004, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Here's what our sawmill looks like now. The building, which Jamie built, is in fine shape. I'm not sure what's going on with the property, but someone owns it and is doing something with it. Which is nice. It was a beautiful meadow before some jerk put a sawmill in the middle of it.

008

008 by woodsrun
008, a photo by woodsrun on Flickr.

Pretty daffodils. They're peaking now and are really pretty. I took a big bunch to one of our libraries this week while I was weeding their non-fiction. It was a nice day.

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Rainy and cool

Not a whole lot to report.  It's been raining for the past couple of days, and has been cold at night.  I've had fires every night, just to get the house up to 60 degrees.  Brrrr.  But I refuse to turn the heat back on so there I go.  I had a friend who rented groaty apartments near Plattsburgh and she would turn the heat on in October and off in May, regardless of the weather.  What a turd.  I have no objection to turning on the heat, I just think I can get by with a fire now.  Which I can.

Had a good weekend, walked the bog on Saturday in the snow, then walked to Gray's on Sunday in spring sun.  My daffodils are finally starting to bloom and it looks as if I'll have a lot of blossoms, though not as many as usual.

Didn't see anyone all weekend, except for the people where I bought my paper.  Talked to my mother both days and my sister on Sunday.  I used to spend an entire weekend day without speaking to or seeing anyone.  And it never bothered me--still doesn't, though I find myself craving conversation when I get up in the morning.  Dogs don't converse but they sure do appreciate any attention I pay to them.

Quiet week at work.  No travels, no meetings until Friday morning.  Then we have a big meeting with member library staff, plus staff lunch (Mexican theme) and plant swap.  I'm not sure I'll have any plants to swap--nothing much is up yet at my house.  Guess I'll have to go poking around the dirt one night just to make sure.

My mother is fine, as is my sister.  My sister's news is that her son is coming to America, which is big news indeed.  He hasn't been here for (she says) 10 years.  The last time I saw Enrico he was a cute little thing who liked Subway meatball subs.  He's a man now, so it will be great to get to know him this summer.  He'll be in the States for a couple of weeks so I'll get to spend time with him I'm sure.  And his sister comes July 4th for an extended visit here, plus trips to RI and Niagara Falls.  If you were coming to the Northeast from Europe, what would you want to see (omitting NYC and Boston as places you've already been)?  Interesting that they chose Niagara Falls, but it is an impressive sight.  I'm told the Canadian side is better than the American side--I've only seen the American side and that was amazing.  So much water!

Did stop to see P&J on Monday night, and their son Jon & wife stopped by then too.  Very festive evening.  I didn't stay long, went home pretty early.  It won't be long before summer people arrive--the first ones come in less than 2 weeks.  Hard to believe it's May!  At work time seems to creep so slowly we swear the clock has stopped, but then the weeks go by really quickly.  Go figure.